Error messages: add guidance on how to write good ones

[stevenaproctor]

What

Every service needs to validate what people type in and select. This update will explain how to write error messages for everyone.

View the draft guidance
View the code in GitHub

Why

#46 and #47 tell you how to display an error message summary and field-level error messages. There needs to be guidance that:

• shows how these components work together
• documents error message content design principles
• gives examples of what content should be used in error messages

This is needed across every government service to improve consistency within and between services. It is important to have error messages that work for everyone and give enough information to help people easily recover.

Anything else

I drafted some principles and presented them at ConCon 6 in September 2016. I then had a lot of comments from people in different departments and made changes to the draft. This includes principles, and suggested content for the error summary box and error messages.

[ignaciaorellana]

This issue replaces #131, which was reviewed by the Working Group (a panel of designers from GDS, HMRC, DWP and Home Office) on 22 March 2018.

Design review

The panel agreed that the pattern should not be published in the GOV.UK Design System until the following changes have been made.

Recommendations

• The pattern should clearly communicate what needs it meets and how it relates to the error message and error summary components.
• Change the name of the pattern - the word ‘Recover’ was felt to be confusing.

[ignaciaorellana]

New proposal

@stevenaproctor made changes according to the Working Group feedback. The revised proposal is here. Most importantly the guidance is now been proposed as an update to the error message component page instead of an independent pattern. This is to address the recommendation that the guidance should relate more clearly to the error message and summary components.

[ignaciaorellana]

This proposal was reviewed by a panel of designers and frontend developers from GDS, HMRC, DWP, EA and Home Office on the 26 of April, 2018. It was reviewed against the criteria for implementation Thanks to the contributor @stevenaproctor

Design review

The panel agreed that the new guidance should be published in the GOV.UK Design System as part of the ‘error message component’ with minor recommendations.

Recommendations

• Add an introductory paragraph to the pattern
• Would be good to point at some evidence that is has been tested with assistive tech
• Consider how you would track errors (this is a nice-to-have suggestion)
• The first example needs more context (where it belongs or where to put it)
• Add information to make clear that ‘error summary’ is a component
• Would be useful to have an example of the thing in context (a link to a live service, that doesn’t require a log-in)

[stevenaproctor]

@timpaul Worth closing this issue?